16/07/2026
My tribute to Dr. Samson Nadew: from Al Sabbah Children Hospital in the streets of Juba, South Sudan to Jimma University Medical Center in the streets of Jimma, Ethiopia.
A Mentor is not just a requirement but a necessity to achieve a dream. As I grew up as a child I had always admired men and women of influence and used their guidance as a compass to show direction.
When I first met Dr. Samson Nadew in Juba-South Sudan as an intern, little did I know he will be my Pediatrics and Child Health Residency Mentor.
While sitting for my ERMP matching examination, we didn't have a choice of institutions, but God made a choice for me, and I found myself in the very institution where Dr. Samson Nadew works. This was not a coincidence but a God's divine intervention, giving him another opportunity to complete what he had started.
When I see and hear him speak, it reminds me of my father and mother. His clear and precise words of instructions revolved around, evaluate your patients well, manage your patients well, read on your cases, and most importantly, seek help from colleagues and seniors where need be.
He always ran to inform me with urgency whenever something was wrong, and he never hesitated to appreciate what was right.
When he speaks to me, I remember the words of my father in the farm land when planting time was approaching, commanding us to complete cultivating a portion of land in a given time.
It also reminds me of the urgency with which my mother instructs me to collect an item in the neighbourhood by spitting saliva on the ground and demanded that I get back before it dries.
A humble, kind, encouraging, and always available individual with the true heart of love and desire to inculcate and propagate traits to the next generation.
That was the exact continuation of the love, care, and guidance from my childhood started by my parents.
Just like Abraham Lincoln said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
I will say all that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my great Mentors from Childhood to this day.
I will always remember you and all the Mentors in the department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Jimma University. I pray that God gives me the wisdom and ability to do the things that you have done to me to make the world a better place, particularly to the African Child.
I am blessed and highly favoured to have had you and many other Mentors in the course of my studies.
I am grateful to the FMoH-Ethiopia and the NMoH-South Sudan for this opportunity to have achieved my childhood dream to serve the African Child.
Blessings and Long Live Dr. Samson Nadew.
Long Live Department of Pediatrics and Child Health and all the Trainers.
Long Live Jimma University.
Long Live FMOH- Ethiopia
Long Live NMOH-South Sudan
Long Live the African Dream, Africa Unite!
By Dr. Lukere Luke Chaplain Dila: NDME, MBBS, MD Pediatrics and Child Health
